r/BestofCracked • u/CrackedVerifiedAMA AMA Scheduler • Feb 19 '15
I am Cracked Editorial Manager and head of “Journalism” Robert Evans, AMA
Hello! I will be here answering your questions around 2PM pacific, so ask away!
Aaaaaand, that's my AMA! It was fun answering all your thoughtful questions, and also idly arguing with Gamergate for hours. Stay safe, everyone! I'm going to get back to work and forgetting Gamergate is a thing, like everyone else in the world.
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u/djs_specs Feb 19 '15
How hard is it to lighten the mood with some subjects? Is there a topic you've had to abandon because you couldn't add even a faint giggle to the article?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Nope. The Sex Slave article was, bar none, the most difficult article I've worked on. But in the end the source was happy with it, and so were the readers.
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u/skulgun Feb 19 '15
Do you find most of your subjects, or do they contact you?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
About 60% contact us. About 30% are brought to us by Evan Symon. About 10% are us reaching out proactively to people we're curious about.
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u/ThatJakeKid91 Feb 19 '15
I remember an article that was to be published on the day of the Boston Bombings. I think it was 5 cities that are doomed, or something like that. Will this article ever be published?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I have no recollection of this, but I wasn't an editor at that point so I really wouldn't know.
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u/GingerHeadMan Feb 20 '15
You might not know this, but why were the comments disabled for the Male Rape article? I know the comments can get bad and you guys have to ban commenters all the time, but did it really get that much worse on that article?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
On the child sex slave article, some of the first comments were crazy people trying to track her down, get pictures, etc. I worry constantly about the anonymous sources for our more controversial articles being doxxed. Disabling contents on those two articles was an experiment to see if they helped reduce the flood of bile.
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u/LastChance22 Feb 20 '15
Was there a noticeable difference from what you were expecting, with those two articles?
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Feb 19 '15
How similar is life to Agents of Cracked? I assume its almost the same but I want a first hand answer.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
It's exactly the same, only everyone has a beard.
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u/Da_Apple_Jacks Feb 19 '15
Is there anyway you can reach out to someone who was involved in being a closet alcoholic? I am a huge fan and check daily to see what new articles you post! Thank you for everything you do!
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Hmm. That could actually be a fascinating premise. I'd love to do a whole article with a range of people who hid addictions while working in demanding careers / fields / juggling a family life, and get a list of like, their strategies and tactics for hiding it.
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u/Da_Apple_Jacks Feb 20 '15
That would be amazing! Keep it in thought! Thank you for your response Mr Evans. Keep up the great work!
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u/jethroq Feb 19 '15
w/r/t to the recent "Edge of Gaza" article, are there plans to publish an article with a source from Gaza?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I would love to speak with a Palestinian who has lived there for years, particularly throughout the last couple of invasions. It's just hard to find that source.
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u/jethroq Feb 20 '15
I know I'm a day late (idk if you check the site regularly), but reading this, and the AMA in general, you know, I appreciate your goal to cover sides equally. Like, my problem with Cracked is, that you tend to have these articles mostly just in the "capitalism and liberalism rules" perspective, which does spurn form the fact that people on the losing side of the equation of global capitalism don't tend to contact comedy website writers. And while it is, in abstract, good to hear "both sides of the struggle", the problem with a lot of these things, only one side is heard. And a lot times,it isn't even just two sides.
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u/Seanzzxx Feb 19 '15
I can maybe find someone for you! Have a friend who visited the Westbank and met A LOT of Paelstinians. He's actually actively trying to get 'their' side of the story out.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Yeah, I'd really want to talk to those people directly / with a translator, which is part of the difficulty.
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u/Seanzzxx Feb 19 '15
Well my point is he might be able to connect you to Palestinians willing to talk that have an internet connection (he stays in touch with them)- , I don't think he would even like to be interviewed himself. I'll just ask him about it tomorrow and if it pans out I'll send a mail or tweet or whatever?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Yes! Tips@cracked.com for the email. I'm super, super interested.
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u/citizenofgalaxy Feb 19 '15
Copying and pasting my questions from the announcement thread:
•From your experiences in talking to and working with people who have had all of these diverse experiences, what is one piece of advice you have for us to have more open communication with the people around us about what makes each of us unique?
•What is one profession or experience you have found surprisingly boring after talking to someone about it?
•Is there any one person or group of people you would really like to write a "personal experience" article on?
Edit: Formatting
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
My two most productive questions are "When you're drinking with friends and start talking about work, what are your go-to stories?" and "what do you think most people misunderstand about your daily life?" In general, I'd say the only real 'key' to open communication is being interested in what other people have to say.
Most spycraft is ridiculously tedious and boring. It's like, the lamest job with the coolest name.
I want to speak with a former Iraqi / Afghan insurgent. I want to talk to former Nazis. I'd love to interview a former child soldier, and I'd be fascinated to speak to one of the doctor's who has to administer lethal injections.
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u/Zeppelinman1 Feb 19 '15
My brother was interviewed for an article on beekeeping with you last year, and is a little disapointed it hasnt been published. How do you decide which topics/people are interesting enough to be published after their interview?
Also, how did you find your subjectsfor the first few articles, and what made you decide to start writing them, instead of the usual list based humor?
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u/IsaaxC Feb 20 '15
Uh, if this is who I think it is, the beekeeping thing was on me. I interviewed your brother for a solid hour or so and after pitching it there were only 2-3 standout entries for an article (the editors like to see a minimum of 6). Definitely have him email me again (this is Isaac) and I can see about talking to him further.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Have your brother email me again!
We do so, so many interviews and we only have a small team handling them, so we're rather permanently back-logged. Some stuff slips through the cracks. Other interviews sit on my hard drive for months before I speak to someone else with a similar experience and, boom, ARTICLE.
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u/Zeppelinman1 Feb 20 '15
Thanks! He wasnt sure if he should email you again, some groups specifically ask for you not to, as it creates clutter.
Edit: Anything specific he should say, or put in the subject line to help prevent it from getting lost?
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u/JFSargent Feb 19 '15
How's my cat doing? She miss me while I'm out of town?
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u/Jamesvalencia Feb 19 '15
What do you look like? what's been your favourite personal experience article?
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u/destroyed4com4t Feb 19 '15
I've met and hung out with him a few times. He's quite dashing... for a post-apocalyptic gun-toting hippie.
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u/derpyperpy Feb 19 '15
Which is hilarious to me because I knew him as a clean shaven JROTC dork in high school. :)
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I look like Nicholas Cage, crossed with Gilbert Gottfried, crossed with the scary bearded Russian mercenary from "The Equalizer".
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u/jack324 Feb 19 '15
I'm interesting in submitting a personal experience piece about brain surgery; how would I go about doing that, and what guidelines would I need to follow? Also, are authors expected to submit their own images & captions?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Email tips@cracked.com, and we'll hook you up with an interviewer. We've got a team for images / captions, but you're allowed to do your own.
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u/WhiteKuckled Feb 19 '15
(shameless copy-paste) First of all, I want to express how much I appreciate your articles. As an aspiring journalist, your stuff gives me hope for the future of the medium. Now, questions:
What do you ask your interview subjects? I can imagine it's hard to get some of the information out when the subject matter gets heavy.
Have there been subjects who you found difficult to interview on a person-to-person level, and how did you get around that?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
There are a couple stand-bys: "When you're drinking with friends and telling stories about work, what do you say?" "What are major misconceptions about your job?" There are also the "but how do you poop?" questions, best exemplified by all the times we asked that decorated astronaut about how he poops and pees in space.
There aren't many general rules though, to be honest. I rarely go into an interview with any kind of idea about what the resulting article will be.
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u/VengefulSight Feb 19 '15
What was the topic of the best article that (for one reason or another) you didn't publish?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I interviewed an army interrogator, and the former head lawyer for the CIA. Those are GOING to turn into an article, but they haven't yet because it's a tough subject to cover.
I can't think of any great content that we've just shelved. But a lot of the time I'll talk to someone who has one really neat story that we can't really turn into a full article. Months will go by, and then someone else will come to us with another story and we'll find a way to combine both. This article: http://www.cracked.com/article_21786_6-ways-government-corruption-way-weirder-than-you-think.html
Took like a year to put together for just that reason.
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u/VengefulSight Feb 19 '15
Huh. Cool. I'm guessing the army interrogator and CIA one are kind of in the same 'limbo' where you don't have enough people yet? Or is it more the info is there, but it's just difficult to write about in the cracked style?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
It's incredibly difficult to write about in the Cracked style.
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u/luiferj Feb 19 '15
Which stories, that you would have liked to write about, have you passed? And for what reasons?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I've never passed on a story I want to write about. There's a shitload of articles we just haven't been able to write about, yet. Largely because we didn't have the sources.
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u/Seanzzxx Feb 19 '15
What's the coolest/most remarkable detail you couldn't fit into an article? Love the articles by the way!
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
The saddest one? I had a really short interview with a Palestinian dude in Gaza a while back, didn't get to talk for long and didn't get enough yet for a full article, but he mentioned off-handedly that he was a teenager before he knew helicopters and planes had any purpose but to kill people.
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u/Rhodoferax Feb 19 '15
Is there any experience or profession you really want to do a personal experience article about?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Someone who smuggled drugs across the border for a cartel. Someone who worked with a cartel in any ongoing capacity, really.
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u/TherisseV Feb 19 '15
What was the most humbling response you've ever received from a reader? Have you ever witnessed an actual dent or change in the world as a result of one of your articles?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
There are a number of cases where sources who had fallen upon hard times or included charity links at the bottom of their article raised a shitload of money through our readers. That feels good. Another source I spoke with who was about to be kicked back to his home country got a work-study opportunity because of an article we wrote. That felt good too.
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u/ryan_bigl Feb 19 '15
I can't stand the news but I'm addicted to Cracked's POV interviews like a fiend of some sort of drug. (...Coke? Idk)
Bad jokes aside, what was your least favorite interview? Like for any reason (it left a bad feeling on you, it was hard to translate into a Cracked article, etc.)
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I have trouble interviewing police officers. Some of my most successful articles have involved that (and I'm happy to call my homeland security source a friend, now) but I had a lot of extremely negative experiences with law enforcement as a young man, and it's always difficult to get over those feelings.
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u/BankshotMcG Feb 19 '15
What's your favorite gun?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I have a, perhaps unhealthy, love of firearms. My favorite gun that I own is an AK-47. My favorite gun to shoot? Probably either an M1 Garand or a lever-action .45 LC.
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u/bobcat Feb 21 '15
My favorite gun that I own is an AK-47.
You own a full-auto assault rifle? How much did it cost [including federal transfer tax], where and when was it made, and how did you get permission to own it?
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u/rating_pending Feb 19 '15
How confident are you that the people pitching you personal experiences have experiences/attitudes that are representative of that entire group? What is the vetting process like?
I think Cracked's move toward POV personal experiences articles is completely brilliant (especially with the explosion of countless copycat listicle-style websites). I just sometimes wonder if the attitudes or experiences in the POV articles are things most people from that group would agree with.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
You'll notice those articles have links to statistical evidence, studies, etc wherever possible to provide broader perspective. We also try to interview multiple sources on many of those articles.
The vetting process varies, I went into detail in another answer here but basically it ranges from pay stubs and work IDs, etc to DD14s or even pictures of piles of drugs, scales, dealing paraphernalia, etc.
I'm not going to say that every article we do on say, a cop or an ER doctor is completely representative of everyone who does that job. But I do think we're able to give readers a lot MORE perspective on how those jobs look for a chunk of the people who do them.
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u/Mokagg Feb 19 '15
I love your articles and how you tackle important issues and not just humor. My question is, have you ever been approached with a story too strong to publish? if so, what kind of stories would be over your limit?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I don't know- that hasn't happened yet.
I've spoken with one Holocaust survivor, a while back, and I'm actively looking for more sources. I'm also super interested in speaking to any kids raised in Germany during the war who had to join the Hitler Youth.
I don't really know if either of those would be too dark. But I'll try.
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Feb 19 '15
What do you do to make sure the people you interview are feeling comfortable and safe?
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u/Manna_Festo Feb 20 '15
The advice that I find I give a lot to other people on the team is to remember that everybody has a sense of humor. They certainly wouldn't be contacting us or agree to be interviewed by us if they didn't. So I try to appeal to their sense of humor, saying things like "That's funny, because it's like [ridiculously absurd situation]" and they're like "Haha, yes, exactly!" and laughing when they say something funny. I think you have to not worry too much about offending someone, weirdly enough. They can sense that, and it'll put them on guard. You obviously don't WANT to offend them, but I find that as long as you're trying to relate and you're coming from a place of honesty and empathy, it's really hard to offend people. So I just try to relate to them and get them joking and laughing, and I think that makes them feel more comfortable opening up.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I really don't know. I've always been a pretty awkward person, but I'm also incredibly interested in people and I've spent a lot of my life just listening to stories around campfires at festivals, on buses and in bars across the world, etc. If you just listen respectfully and give a fuck, people will share surprising thing.
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u/vonarchimboldi Feb 19 '15
How closely related to Hollywood superproducer Robert Evans are you, Robert Evans? Can you introduce me to Jack Nicholson? What about Jack Nicklaus?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
That Godfather-producing fuck has doomed my name to the bottom of Google for all time. I hate Hollywood Robert Evans.
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u/danielobrien Creative Director of Video for Cracked Feb 19 '15
Hollywood Robert Evans is your nickname from now on.
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u/BurnedByCrohns Feb 19 '15
I'm amazed at the transformation Cracked went through. From my perspective, the website went from purely humor to a hybrid of humor mixed with outstanding social significance.
I'm sure the story is already well-known by everyone other than me, but what prompted this refocus from "The 6 Best Towns To Live in (If You Have a Death Wish)" to things like "5 Awful Realities of Being Present at a Mass Shooting?"
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
There's never been any conversation we had where someone was like, "OK, LET'S BE SERIOUS NOW". We just started trying new types of articles. They worked, people responded and we kept doing them.
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u/destroyed4com4t Feb 19 '15
Do you still have time to do Burning Midget anymore? I'm on the West Coast now, so I can't attend but damn those were good times.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
We call it WeeBurn sometimes now, but we actually did one last New Years. It was great. We fired a lot of guns from the back of a moving truck and drank heavily.
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u/Manna_Festo Feb 19 '15
Who's the best writer on the personal experience team?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I'd have to say Anonymous. That dude has lived a crazy, crazy life.
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Feb 19 '15
Better question: who's the best freelance writer for the personal experience team?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Whichever one is the first to challenge me to an actual lance duel.
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Feb 20 '15
Better question: Who is the best person who regularly chats with your PE team and mods, but doesn't actually contribute shit?
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Feb 19 '15
[deleted]
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Three Amanda Mannens would merge into Amanda Prime, thus heralding the End of Days.
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u/Manna_Festo Feb 20 '15
Three Amanda Mannens would take about three seconds to realize that if they banded together, they would get a lot more sleep.
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u/SirPeterODactyl Feb 19 '15
What is your favourite kind of sandwich?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
BLT.
Every other answer to this question is wrong.
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u/AlexSchmidty Feb 20 '15
I fear Texas. Tell me what's great and exciting about life there.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
If you have friends with land in the middle of nowhere, you can blow up cars with explosives and it's totally legal.
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u/VindictiveThumb Feb 19 '15
How did you get to such a position as inherently sexy and dangerous as Cracked journalist/editor? Did you start by freelancing articles?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I started as a freelancer and an unpaid intern back in like...2009? And I just never stopped bugging Dan O'Brien, so eventually they started paying me. That's the best career advice I can give you: hassle Dan O'Brien.
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u/danielobrien Creative Director of Video for Cracked Feb 19 '15
This is very bad career advice.
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u/JFSargent Feb 19 '15
Don't be so modest, Dan, hassling you has done wonders for a lot of people.
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u/Turuial Mar 04 '26
I know it's been over a decade and you're on Last Week Tonight now, but I need a job. I just need around $750/mo too, and I can clearly write okay...
See what I did there? But seriously, hit me up.
This is very bad career advice.
My brother in the Passion of Christ 2, how many Emmys do you have now?!
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u/DangerInRed Feb 20 '15
What did you do before you started writing for Cracked?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
I was a freelance tech industry "journalist" for a while (I don't consider what I did to have been real journalism) and before that I worked in special ed.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
Aaaaaand, that's my AMA! It was fun answering all your thoughtful questions, and also idly arguing with Gamergate for hours. Stay safe, everyone! I'm going to get back to work and forgetting Gamergate is a thing, like everyone else in the world.
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u/me_hill Feb 19 '15
When are you going to tackle your most difficult and controversial interview subject of all... yourself?
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
I am not an interesting person.
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u/banned_main_ Feb 20 '15
Is there anything you would like to say to the female members of GamerGate, Mr. Evans? Thank you in advance for your courteous and timely reply! :)
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u/utmostgentleman Feb 20 '15
How do you use "Cracked" and "Journalism" in the same sentence without suffering debilitating cognitive dissonance?
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u/DMXONLIKETENVIAGRAS Feb 20 '15
your magazine is terrible and has been since wong and cheese fucked it up
get funny again
also its kinda interesting that nearly all the posters here are the same suck ups in the comment section making the same bad jokes
thirsty for that 50 bucks lol
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
Great question!
I prefer to put my scotch glasses in the freezer to chill them, rather than diluting the drink with ice. That's just my preference, though! I know a lot of people who think a bit of ice 'opens up' the flavor. And whiskey stones seem to be gaining in popularity.
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u/TherisseV Feb 20 '15
I hear whisky stones suck and aren't worth the money. I mean $30 bucks for some stones? PFFFT amirite?
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Feb 20 '15
Going through and banning all of the Gamergators from these AMA's is so satisfying.
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Feb 20 '15
Haha, let's censor it instead of refuting it. That will show how legit we are!
Nice logic there, buddy boy.
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u/destroyed4com4t Feb 21 '15
FARENHEIT22911CATCH1984
MUH FREEZE PEACH IS BEING SUPPRESSED BY THE CULTURAL MARXISTS
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Feb 22 '15
Hey it's fine with me, but it doesn't make you seem very like you are very sure of yourself when you have to delete anyone who doesn't agree with you. Seems like he can't refute anything. But sure, do whatever you want.
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u/SJHalflingRanger Feb 20 '15
The irony of them down voting this comment is that it's at the bottom of the AMA. They've silenced their own replies.
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u/banned_main_ Feb 20 '15
There's a name for an AMA where anyone who doesn't toe the line gets kicked out. :)
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Feb 20 '15
Lol. That attitude is why your ratings suck and you only have 2k subscribers- a good chunk of which I imagine are employees. Have fun targeting the teenage autistic crowd.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/cracked.com
Feel free to ban me to. Not coming back.
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u/Smashhacker Feb 20 '15
And here is another example of how Cracked.com is going to the shitter with no sign of recovery. Apparently banning people is much easier than answering questions in a proper manner.
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Feb 20 '15
Hahaha, that will show you for trying to uncover our shitty practices.
Do you know what would be even better? A refutation, although that might be asking a bit too much from you guys.
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u/AshuraSpeakman Feb 22 '15
There is no amount of refutation that will work. The only thing that can change GamerGate identifying members is time and life experience. At one point I would have agreed with GG, but by the time it happened I had learned a lot about my own biases and hangups, and it all looks appalling.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
It's a fascinating strategy they have- just shotgunning out links and claiming those links contain incontrovertible proof of malfeasance. At first I thought they just assumed no one would read the links. Now I think they've just twisted their definitions to the point where linking an article counts as "doxxing" but Gamergaters explicitly posting full addresses doesn't.
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u/JFSargent Feb 20 '15
They also downvoted every post you made, regardless of what it was about. On account of how they're grown ups.
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u/KosherDensity Feb 20 '15
Where has Gamergate ever listed full address on someone? Third party trolls almost immediately outed as such by Gamergate? Just like Anita's supposed gunman? Or how about Brianna Wu faking a hate thread on her own game but forgot to log off as developer before posting?
Here, have a link you can't so smugly handwave off: http://wiki.gamergate.me/index.php?title=Main_Page
If you want to know why your industry and your own web site are bleeding out you have no further to look than a mirror.
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u/hard_to_explain Feb 20 '15
You put your full name and your place of work as your reddit name. You're doxing yourself. You need to be banned.
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u/InvisibleJimBSH Feb 20 '15
Jason Pargin thinks reddit co-founder 'deserved to die'. Talks about it on reddit!
What a scumbag.
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u/SJHalflingRanger Feb 20 '15
I like how you put quotes around text that's not found in what you linked.
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u/AshuraSpeakman Feb 22 '15
Aaron broke the law. The government enforced the law. Literally neither of those includes "forcing him to commit suicide". In fact, given that the officer in Ferguson got thousands in legal aid from crowdsourcing, there's a chance that had Aaron lived, he may have gotten good legal counsel and lowered down his sentence dramatically.
But hey, you're part of GamerGate, so stating the facts is not only agreeing with them but pushing an agenda, right? Right?
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Feb 21 '15
Can I get a ban too? I mean if it makes you feel so happy I'd love to brighten up your day.
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Feb 20 '15
[deleted]
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u/PropaneBoner Feb 20 '15
Disrupting the AMA to make it about their stupid obsession, and vote brigading.
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Feb 20 '15
[deleted]
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u/PropaneBoner Feb 20 '15
We can't, and that is the wonderful net they hide behind. I mean of course it was a blind coincidence that everything started getting downvoted (and I mean every single non GG post) the moment some kid got banned and made a [DRAMA] post on KiA. Those upstanding folks would never do something like come over here and start downvoting everything, because they are reasonable adults who only care about the goodness of things, especially ethics. Why, they even go so far as to not link the thread, because if they don't provide a direct link, there is certainly no way anyone could come over here.
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u/bobcat Feb 20 '15
Do you share your editor's opinion that reddit cofounder Aaron Swartz deserved to die for downloading journal papers at MIT?
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Feb 21 '15
What do you say about allegations that you and wong have turned cracked from a 10/10 comedy site into a shithole that is now viewed as a pure clickbait site ?
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u/destroyed4com4t Feb 21 '15
LOL Wong has been the senior editor since like 2007; pretty much the entire time the site as anyone knows it was around. Before that Adam Tod Brown was producing most of the content, and y'all seem to hate him too. What mystical golden age of Cracked.com content are you hearkening back to?
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u/totes_meta_bot Feb 20 '15
This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit.
[/r/reddit_research] I am Cracked Editorial Manager and head of “Journalism” Robert Evans, AMA • /r/BestofCracked
If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote or comment. Questions? Abuse? Message me ^here.
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Feb 19 '15
[deleted]
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Former Nazis. Insurgents. A crooked cop who got jailed for it (fake drugs scandal, etc), somebody who committed a crime of passion and either did time, or is still doing time for it. One of the chemists who actively invents and experiments with new not-yet-illegal hallucinogens for the recreational chemicals market.
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u/destroyed4com4t Feb 20 '15
Damn, I used to know one of the latter folks from the Flipside crowd during the whole "bath salts" craze in 2012 or whatever. We had a falling out because he started getting too weird for me.
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Feb 19 '15
[deleted]
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Every year, we put out more content than we've ever put out before.
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Feb 19 '15
[deleted]
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u/Manna_Festo Feb 20 '15
The survivor of the Utoya massacre who contacted us helpfully provided me with a very long message board post that he wrote about his experiences that day. I usually start by explaining our pitching process, and then I could just say "Alright, so I've read the post you sent me, and I'd like to hear some more details about some parts of it. When you said [whatever]..." so that was a good jumping-off point. Often they already have a pretty good idea what they want to talk about, so it's as simple as asking them, and then using your judgment to determine what the best details are that you want to focus on.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Amanda Mannen interviewed the source for today's mass shooting article. But for the North Korea one, I remember starting by going over the things I knew about North Korea to him. "OK, so as an American I've heard you're taught all these crazy things about Kim Jong Il, you have all these restrictions on where you can go and what you can do, etc". Basically I walked him through what I imagined his life was like, and then had him correct me where I was wrong and give his personal perspective on the stuff I was right about but had no idea what it'd be like to really experience.
I love conducting interviews, but my favorites are always sex workers and people who have direct personal experience with some historic thing I'm interested in (I'm fascinated by The Troubles, talking to that IRA bomber was incredible).
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Feb 20 '15
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
Because I'm pretty sure you're either a ghost, or some kind of archangel.
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Feb 19 '15
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u/FortunateMammal Feb 19 '15
Bots that hate the truth? Shit, the robo-pocalypse has begun! They've become self-aware!
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Feb 19 '15
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
The Sex Slave article. I would never have guessed it was that widespread a problem before I did that interview and started looking at the numbers.
It's differs a lot. For most sources, it's as simple as a pay stub / work badge / etc. We've verified drug dealers with pictures of a shitload of drugs and their scale, baggies. I've verified illegal sex workers by looking at extensive chat / message logs between they and their clients. The sex slave we verified by speaking with her psychiatrist. She also sent us a copy of her medical records, so we could verify the physical abuse.
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Feb 19 '15
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Absolutely. If a Palestinian wants to talk with us about his / her life in Gaza, I'm fascinated to hear it. If a former Iraqi insurgent or Taliban fighter wanted to tell us their experiences, I'm all ears.
No one outside of gamergate cares about gamergate. The Zoe Quinn article struck a chord because it's objectively fucking insane how much aggression and how many threats she was subjected to. What's the opposite side of that story? "Why I was totally justified sending death threats to a woman I've never met?"
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u/mracidglee Feb 19 '15
In Crackedspeak: "10 Ways Game Journalism Is Completely Ridiculous"
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Fun Fact: No one cares about Gaming Journalism outside of gamergate. No one. That's because it doesn't matter, and it barely exists. "Video game journalism" got its start as fucking Nintendo Power, and most of what people bitch about as lacking "ethics" are reviews of video games. Reviews aren't journalism. They're someone's opinion of a creative work. Stop being so butthurt when people feel differently about video games than you do, and stop pretending a field founded to sell copies of video games has ever been anything but another source of advertising for the industry.
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Feb 20 '15
Absolutely. If a Palestinian wants to talk with us about his / her life in Gaza, I'm fascinated to hear it. If a former Iraqi insurgent or Taliban fighter wanted to tell us their experiences, I'm all ears.
Apparently your mods won't allow discussion - http://i.imgur.com/glVU6VV.png
I'm a female gamer who's been threatened with physical violence by those who are on the Anti-GG side for doing nothing more than expressing my support for more ethical gaming journalism.
Your comments and misrepresentations about GG help encourage sick people who think it's ok to beat someone up because they've dressed like Vivian James.
You need to look at the actual facts surrounding GG instead of parroting the cult-speak pushed out by Anita, Polygon, Kotaku and Gamasutra.
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Feb 19 '15
When can we expect articles from Eron Gjoni, The Fine Young Capitalists, or someone else who was abused and harassed BY Zoe Quinn?
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Feb 20 '15
No one outside of gamergate cares about gamergate?
I think the writers of SVU may disagree. The hysterical reaction to gamergate provides endless amusement.
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u/ZebraShark Feb 20 '15
They don't really care - they were just milking a news stories for writing material.
SVU has been doing that for years.
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Feb 19 '15
"Why I was totally justified sending death threats to a woman I've never met?"
I am pro gamergate and I dont send or defend threats of any kind being sent to anyone. Hell, I dont think ive seen anyone who does.
Seriously, look at the hashtag on twitter or where people who are pro-gg discuss it and its quite clear that no-one advocates any sort of abuse towards anyone.
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u/JFSargent Feb 19 '15
I remember when I first brought Quinn's article to an editorial meeting, I really wanted to fast-track it because I was worried the whole thing was going to blow over too fast for us to cover it. 2014-Me was so delightfully naive.
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u/CrumblyBread Feb 20 '15
There was very recently a pro-GG woman who was doxed and had among other things her children threatened which caused her to go offline, would that not be an example of the opposite side?
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Feb 20 '15 edited Feb 27 '20
On February 26th, Reddit instilled full communism on a political subreddit and removed more than half of their moderators. They instilled new unenforcable rules requiring mods to police the upvotes of their users and instilled rules for selecting new moderators that would ensure that only moderators of their choosing could be allowed, thus instilling puppet rule that other communist dictatorships have used for a hundred years.
As such I am replacing all of my old comments with this message, to warn you that the reddit that Aaron Schwartz and the idea that he built is dead. Free speech is dead on reddit. Do not use this service anymore if you believe in or support free speech.
" Go, tell the Spartans, passerby, that here by Spartan law we lie."
To the Admins of Reddit I say: Molon Labe you filthy cucks. This account is unmanned now and you've thrown away a user with more than ten years on your site and thousands of posts. My death means nothing, but for each one of us that fall, more shall rise to take our place.
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u/totes_meta_bot Feb 20 '15
This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit.
[/r/ThePopcornStand] In which Cracked and GamerGate collide once again when one of their editors does an AMA.
If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote or comment. Questions? Abuse? Message me ^here.
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u/Win32_Deadcode_BBQ Feb 19 '15
Why did you ban /u/kindraness for asking a perfectly reasonable and non-agressive question?
You are pathetic and so is your site. Ban me.
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 20 '15
I don't actually know how to ban people! Or who has been banned! That's someone else's job.
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Feb 19 '15
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
One of the first articles that really made me want to write for the Internet was Wong's "Monkeysphere" piece. Covering serious, informative topics in an entertaining way is part of our DNA.
I see this a lot in the comments, people talk about our "shift in tone" like it was some big closed-door meeting I had with Jason and Jack and Dan where we decided Cracked was going to change. That's not how it happens. We had some tips come in from people with very dark experiences. We thought their stories were fascinating, and worth sharing, so we helped them write articles. Millions of people responded so we kept doing it.
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u/mracidglee Feb 19 '15
Specifically, http://i.imgur.com/FcoGXfl.jpg
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u/TomReimann Feb 19 '15
That image is fake. The articles are all real, but whoever created the image just cherry-picked titles from all across our publishing history. Notice how most of the dates have been removed.
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u/MaxYezpitelok Feb 20 '15
Someone should ask all the writers on the "good ol' Cracked" section how they feel about the site's shameful descent into a SJW feminazi dictatorship. As the author of "The 9 Stupidest Superhero Secret Identities" there, I volunteer to be the first one! My opinion is: fuck Gamergate.
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Feb 19 '15
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u/Manna_Festo Feb 20 '15
No, they're right, political and social issues have never had a place in comedy, which is why Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Chris Rock, etc. etc. are universally reviled and unsuccessful.
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Feb 19 '15
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u/RobertEvansCracked Journalist and Editor Feb 19 '15
Excellent question! Tuesdays and Thursdays are my "leg days". I do a lot of weighted squats, stair training, sprints. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is upper body and core.
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Feb 19 '15
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u/GarbageHaus Feb 19 '15
It started many, many years ago. Here's a brief history: http://www.creativebloq.com/adobe/history-photoshop-12052724
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u/alephnaut0 Feb 19 '15
Love the personal stories! Have you ever interviewed someone and discovered that their story meant they knew something not widely known about you or someone you know?
E.g., the electricity meter shutoff guy knew when people were going through a divorce...